It's a new season! Welcome to the Late 2015 season, the fifth season of the DCL.

As is usually the case, we have made some changes to the site and to the rules for the new season. Here's what's new:

- Seasons are now 4 months long. The current season will last until the start of January. (This is only three months, but we want to align them with the year).

- Promotions and demotions no longer happen suddenly. If you are close to being promoted into (for example) silver, the ladder will offer you the chance to take a test and play your way in. If you accept, a five match promotion challenge will appear on your profile, and a silver bullseye will appear by your name in the main standings.

At this point, silver pilots will begin claiming matches to test you. If Morfod clicks "claim match", the promotion challenge will show that one of your promotion matches must be against Morfod. If he chooses to have the ladder give you a random core level, that will be shown too, and it will tell you how many kills you must get. Over the five game series, if the sum of your kills adds up to the expected number or more over all five matches, you will be promoted!

Demotions work in a similar fashion. If you begin to underperform your skill rating, the ladder will offer you a demotion. You can accept it, or you can initiate a challenge to keep your rating. It works the same as the promotion challenge, though the kill thresholds are about a point lower. If you do nothing, the demotion goes through in two weeks' time. If you pass your demotion challenge, the ladder will not try to demote you again for 30 days.

Promotion and demotion challenges are a permanent part of your profile.

- The challenge system is now automated, and no longer handled through the forum! If you want to challenge someone, use the Report -> Challenge tab and give your reason. They will receive an email.

The rules have changed slightly to make challenges a bit more serious. You can only challenge one pilot every 14 days, only receive one challenge every 14 days, and you can only challenge the same pilot once every 30 days.

And the penalty for ignoring a challenge is now much stricter: A 14 day suspension!

You can always arrange matches and handle things outside the challenge system on the forum. Reserve formal challenges for those high stakes callouts!

Either the challenger or an admin can extend the deadline or rescind a challenge at any time.

All challenges you have initiated or received are listed permanently on your profile, along with the results.

If you receive a challenge and are too busy with life to be able to meet it, it is considered honorable to retire right away. If you do this, you won't be able to unretire for 15 days.

Completely ignoring a challenge is considered very dishonorable. If you do it more than once, you may want to consider whether you posess the degree of put up or shut up necessary to be a part of a highly competitive ladder. We may give you a long suspension to contemplate that . . .

- The core level list has been updated to reflect levels which were popular last season. Last season, the list was Logic, Fuzed, Flea, Lurk, Vamped, Athena, Nysa, Take2, and Ascend. This season, it is Logic, Athena, Flea, Ascend, Vamped, Lurk, Take2, Fuzed, Black Rose, and Mindtrix.

Nysa is leaving, being replaced by Black Rose and Mindtrix.

- The algorithm for making pilots go unrated for inactivity has been made more aggressive. You now require five matches in the last 90 days to keep your rating. However, if you lose your rating, you can get it back within two matches, without going through the (new) promotion system.

- You can now attach a demo (or really, any link) to a match. Go to one of your matches and use the "Add link" button at the bottom. It shows up under your comment.

- The award holders page resets for the new season, so you can look back at the awards everyone earned last season.

- The four participation awards (matches, levels, opponents, courage) are granted champions. Last season, it was Jediluke, Morfod, Lotharbot, and Morfod. (I didn't get one, for the first time in ladder history . . . )

- We will be handing out props for those who did awesome things last season. Watch the forum for the nomination thread!

If a pilot simply chooses to retire of their own accord (assuming they have no official challenge pending and have not rage quit during a match thus they have a pending obligation) then there is not a 15 day rule applied to that retirement.

If a pilot rage quits during a match and simply hits the retire button then admin would need to be informed that this has occurred and we will investigate the situation and deal with it then.